Paid Rs 3,100 for fake Covid test: Actor

Kolkata: A theatre actor residing in south Kolkata has alleged that a doctor, who claimed to be attached with Howrah District Hospital, carried out a fake Covid test on him and charged Rs 3,100 at his chamber at New Alipore. When the actor — Rishav Adhikari, 27 — asked him for a printout of his Covid report, the doctor allegedly gave him a printed discharge certificate of Howrah hospital, on which it was hand written that he was Covid negative. Adhikari’s theatre guru and thespian Soumitra Mitra has reported the matter to cops .
According to Adhikari, he had fever on July 6 and visited the doctor on July 10. “He prescribed medicines but there was no improvement. I was having breathing trouble. So, I went to him again on July 15. This time, he administered an injection. On July 18, I went for a follow-up visit and he administered another injection. By July 22, I was fit. But, I still wanted a Covid test done to be sure that I didn’t have the virus. It was then that he demanded Rs 3,100 for a swab test,” claimed Adhikari.
Four days later, hearing nothing about the report, the family enquired from the doctor. “The next morning, he said that I was Covid positive. I said I needed the report to inform local police and Swasthya Bhawan. He said that was not required. It was then that I told him that I knew someone senior in CMO. The doctor suddenly said that I was negative and that it got mixed up with another report. He asked me to go to his chamber to collect a report. It was there that I found that he had prepared a report that showed that I was admitted at the hospital from July 19-22. In explanation, he said that unless someone got admitted, a Covid test is not done,” Adhikari added.
When contacted, Narayan Chatterjee, the superintendent of the Howrah district hospital, denied that the discharge certificate was issued from the hospital. “Nowhere is it visible that the paper is from our hospital. There is a PGT doctor by that name but he has denied — in writing — that he was involved. We have no records about anyone called Rishav Adhikari. We are still investigating the details,” said Chatterjee, adding that the discharge certificate could be of another hospital.